Abstract: Being one of the oil-producing countries, China has a brilliant future for its petroleum industry. However, China is still lack of petroleum resources in terms of average state land and resources. The petroleum production in the country had entered a plateau phase since the year of 1980. The strategy adopted as stabilizing the east oil and gas blocks and developing the northwest and offshore areas had supported a relatively stable production of petroleum. In recent years, petroleum import has helped meeting the energy demand of the country, also rendering a rapid growth in economy（GDP） and export trade volume. It is estimated that by the year of 2020, China will need 480 million tons of petroleum, among which 290 million tons have to be rely on imports. It seems that China has to use petroleum from both domestic and foreign sources to meet its energy demand. Therefore, implementation of strategies of putting energy-saving as priority, enriching energy mix, and developing recyclable alternative energy, is crucial to petroleum industry development in China.

Key words: petroleum resources,imported petroleum, development strategy